The present invention is directed to a fan delivery or fan-wheel delivery unit for a folding apparatus, having at least one fan wheel including a number of fan-wheel elements and having a signature guide member that is movable relative to the fan wheel.
In folding apparatuses of web-fed rotary presses for commercial printing or for newspaper printing, one or more web substrates are folded together, cut, perforated and/or folded and processed into signatures, copies, booklets, printed products or folded sheets referred to simply as signatures in the following. The signatures are often delivered by a fan delivery from an upstream signature conveyor path to a downstream transport device, for example a conveyor belt, often in a shingle-stream formation. At high production speeds of often several ten thousand signatures per hour, the transfer of the signatures into and out of the fan-wheel pockets constitutes a critical process step. For this reason, in a fan delivery of the species, a signature guide member is assigned to a fan wheel in such a way that the process of receiving the signatures in the fan-wheel pockets, as well as each of the signatures received in one fan-wheel pocket are assisted in that portions of the signatures are guided or routed by the signature guide member.
A signature guide member for a fan wheel of a fan delivery in a folding apparatus is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,334. The signature guide member includes a plurality of arms which can be moved close to the imaginary peripheral surface of the fan wheel, thereby enabling signatures received in the fan-wheel pockets to be contacted and guided until being delivered to a conveyor belt. The shape of the arms is adapted to the curvature of the fan wheel. The gap between the signature guide member and the fan wheel is adjustable; the signature guide member can be moved in a substantially horizontal direction. In addition, the signature guide member is sluable about an axis of rotation, so that access to the fan wheel is facilitated for maintenance work.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,389 describes a fan delivery having signature guide members which are able to be adjusted to conform with the format of the signatures to be delivered. The fan wheel is composed of fan-wheel elements, which are accommodated together with the signature guide members on a rotary shaft. The radial distances between the fan-wheel elements are variable, and the position of the signature guide members can likewise be varied, so that signatures of different formats, in particular having different widths, can be received by the fan-wheel pockets and delivered.